Tag Archive for offences

The evidence from abroad, especially Portugal, suggests that scaling back on criminalising drug users in the UK could be a smart move, says Jessica Magson Despite major advances in drug treatment support over the past 20 years, punitive approaches to tackling illicit drug use remain…

The public perception of the drug dealer is either a seedy street corner ne’er do well or a bling-laden ‘kingpin’. But Max Daly sheds light on a different world of dealing. A university campus is a drug dealer’s dream. Thousands of young people…

The law reform lobby has been revitalised in the nineties supported by elements within the body politic, the media, medicine, the police and the judiciary and an unknown but growing proportion of the public. However, most governments, international agencies –…

One of Britain’s best known arrest referral schemes gives Druglink readers the low-down on getting arrestees into treatment and off the drug-crime roundabout. Get it while you can: the walking talking calling card (PDF)

The drug courts which began in Miami in 1989 offered an alternative to a criminal justice system seen as failing with drug offenders. The judge also acts as a social worker, prosecutor and defender. Offenders are sent to treatment programmes…

One strand of national policy encourages offenders to own up to their drug problems – but do other strands give them overriding reasons not to? This probation officer’s eye view suggests schemes to divert offenders into treatment could fail at…

Two studies have assessed the practical impact of the provision introduced in 1992 allowing courts to make it a condition of a probation order that drug dependents undergo community based treatment. Courts rarely used this option and it had little…

Enforcement statistics suggest a steep rise in crack use in recent years but not to epidemic levels. Crack is commonly used in some inner city areas, generally on an irregular and non-dependent basis. The connection with black people is stronger…